Simvation - Is The Site Safe?

I found a couple of helicopters I wanted to download via Google with links to the Simvation site. However when I clicked on the link I got a message stating "This site isn't secure. This might mean that someone’s trying to fool you or steal any info you send to the server. You should close this site immediately."

Now I've had similar messages before from known okay sites so I continued, however this morning on starting the PC I got a pop up message advising of a problem with Skype. To the best of my knowledge I never installed Skype on this PC so I killed the message. Subsequently found that Skype had somehow installed, so uninstalled and now running full virus and Malwarebytes scan.

So currently a process of elimination going on and the obvious finger of suspicion points towards Simvation.

So just wondered if anyone else has had this or similar issues?

Everything came back clean.

Maybe it was just a Windows glitch.

The warning messages were related to the web site's security certificate, not any virus-infected files or untoward Skype installer.

From Pete, the Simviation admin:

"Some of you will see a warning when visiting the site.

This is due to some moron at our DNS hosting company who changed a setting without knowledge nor was it requested.

Complaint made and being fixed now.

Rest assured there is zero risk in using Simviation."

The files that I downloaded from Simviation all say in properties "this file came from a different computer and is being blocked". So do all the files you get after unzipping the .zip file. It sometimes also causes issues after unzipping and installing. When editing a file for example. Or with a texture showing up propely in fsx.

Some say those blocked files are harmless.

None of the files from flightsim.com, Avsim, Flyawaysimulation, etc have this blocked file issue.

Even if blocked files were harmless, I think it shows sloppyness. And sloppy is just a small step away from dangerous.

The blocked files problem on that site has been there for years. It's not a recent thing. But they still have not fixed it.

The message about their server issue does not fill me with confidence either. It sounds like they have not kept up with recent Web security regulations. (and are trying to blame that on someone else).

The info about that saying 'it will be fixed soon' has been up for quite a while.

To be clear, I'm not certain of any danger.

I just choose to avoid the site myself. Pretty much all addons there can be found elsewhere anyway.

The files that I downloaded from Simviation all say in properties "this file came from a different computer and is being blocked". So do all the files you get after unzipping the .zip file. It sometimes also causes issues after unzipping and installing. When editing a file for example. Or with a texture showing up propely in fsx.

Some say those blocked files are harmless.

None of the files from flightsim.com, Avsim, Flyawaysimulation, etc have this blocked file issue.

 

Even if blocked files were harmless, I think it shows sloppyness. And sloppy is just a small step away from dangerous.

The blocked files problem on that site has been there for years. It's not a recent thing. But they still have not fixed it.

 

The message about their server issue does not fill me with confidence either. It sounds like they have not kept up with recent Web security regulations. (and are trying to blame that on someone else).

The info about that saying 'it will be fixed soon' has been up for quite a while.

 

To be clear, I'm not certain of any danger.

 

I just choose to avoid the site myself. Pretty much all addons there can be found elsewhere anyway.

Simviation often are late to the party, or not at all: I trust them about as far as I can throw 'em... Perhaps they could tell us where they copy all the files from? Surely they can't be uploaded there? Who would?

And who is this `Pete` the system admin? Never, ever heard of him....

Agree, never in umpteen years have I had an issue or a anti-virus moan, & I'm using Defender.

I never, EVER, d/l from Simviation, so I've nver had an anti-virus pop up. And I use Defender!